Life Lesson #35: Commitment

Has commitment become a lost character trait?

From the dictionary, commitment is defined as: a pledge or promise; obligation. It is a fact that the degree of obligation, the importance of a promise or pledge to a baseball team has decreased in recent years. Has the fast-paced environment of modern life pushed commitment to practices and games to the back of our minds? Or has the increased availability of travel and tournament teams made it easier for families to bounce from team to team? High school coaches will tell you that the current athlete coming into a program has a much lower degree of commitment to sports, and baseball in particular, than in previous generations. This can be attributed to the emergence of video games and extreme sports, but it can also be attributed to a fast-paced, high-tech society dependent on convenience. The combination of all of these factors leads to a recipe for lack of commitment. Some of the most common baseball examples follow:

Missed Practices
At high school and beyond, there is a firm rule: You do not practice, you do not play. When there are 18 athletes competing each and every day for playing time, it simply isn’t fair for an athlete to miss practice and expect to start the next game. At the youth level, attendance at practice should be mandatory (within moderation). Making a commitment to a team means attending practice once or twice a week and being on time for pregame activities. When a volunteer coach cuts work early to plan for and set up a practice, it is inconsiderate and rude to show up late and leave early. More importantly, impressionable young athletes are taught that it’s okay to come and go as you please with little regard to the effect on other people.

Team to Team Transitions
The emergence of travelball has also weakened commitment in youth baseball. Tournament play is more or less year-round, which means that there is not really a start and stop to the season. The lines between when a season starts and ends are therefore blurred, and so then the degree of commitment is also blurred. Athletes join and leave teams on a whim, searching for a perfect situation and jumping ship at the first sign of trouble. Because there is no formal league, the barriers to entry are decreased and new teams can pick up and play on a whim. Don’t like the current situation? Grab 13 players and sign a check – you can play.

Punctuality
An example that we feel directly at Cal Aces is punctuality. Aces workouts are highly popular because of the tight itinerary structuring each event - The way that each station and each day’s instruction builds upon the previous one, as well as the fact that each workout is held to a strict timing schedule. This tight schedule allows Aces to efficiently work out a group without long lines or significant down time in between stations. One of the biggest detractors to this efficiency is players arriving late. These players miss the warm-up and stretching portion of the workout, and now the group must wait… or an instructor must be dedicated to guiding this late athlete through an appropriate warm up. The most frustrating part often occurs when an athlete or family shows little remorse for being late. While there are often times when the situation can not be avoided, it should be expected that when the late athlete does show up… he would run from the car to the field and do everything possible to get caught up to the group. The simple fact that many of these athletes are oblivious that players and coaches are waiting on them, is a direct indication that the lack of commitment in the family is directly affecting the young athlete.

Does the fact that I drop my kid off at practice 20 minutes late really matter? Well, does the same kid that shows up late to practice come home with a detention slip from school because he was tardy at class?

Does the fact that I pick up and switch teams every 3 months really matter? Well, does the same kid changing teams have trouble keeping friends? Is that athlete constantly searching for something bigger and better, losing sight of the challenges and tasks immediately at hand?

Commitment does matter. The importance of the lessons learned through commitment to a sports team should not be undervalued. A lack of commitment can force an athlete to miss out on some of the fulfillment associated with the accomplishments and successes of an individual in a team sport: a middle infield combination that plays together from pony league through high school; a group of all-stars that compete together for years before conquering the district, section or state; the camaraderie and laughs associated with building lifelong friendships over a long and grueling career. And while ALL of these are not guaranteed to a family that shows commitment through and through… NONE of these are available to the commitment-challenged family or athlete that simply can not find a way to consistently follow through.